NASSR / Romantic Circles Pedagogy Contest
Contest Winners
2019 Winner
Kaitlin Mondello (The Graduate Center, CUNY)
“Dark Ecology: Race, Gender, and the Environment"
2019 Finalists
Pamela Buck (Sacred Heart University)
“Recovering British Women Travel Writers”
Devin M. Garofalo (University of North Texas)
“Everglades Romanticism”
Carmen Faye Mathes (University of Central Florida)
“Wild Romanticism”
2018 Winner
Cynthia Schoolar Williams (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
“FROZEN! The Climate Crisis of 1816 and Its Lessons for Today”
2018 Finalists
Hannah Doherty Hudson (Suffolk University)
“Romantic Lives, Romantic Archives”
Lenora Hanson (New York University)
“Lyric Conditions: Survival and Reproduction”
PREVIOUS WINNERS & FINALISTS
2017 Winner
Miranda Burgess (Associate Prof., University of British Columbia) and Thora Brylowe (Assistant Prof., University of Colorado, Boulder)
“Networked Courses in Romantic-Period Media History”
2017 Honorable Mention
Nikki Hessell (Senior Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington)
“Romanticism and Indigeneity”
2017 Additional Finalists
Arden Hegele (Lecturer, Columbia University)
“Frankenstein: The Genesis and Afterlife of the Romantic Novel”
Chris Koenig-Woodyard (Lecturer, University of Toronto)
“Austen and Her Successors: Romance – Austen, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Misery”
2016 Winners
Lauren Neefe, Brittain Fellow, Georgia Tech
"Romanticism's Social Media"
Simon Bainbridge, Professor, Lancaster University
"Wordsworth Online and On Location: Teaching Romantic Writing Beyond the Literature Classroom"
2016 Additional Finalists
Tristram Wolff, Visiting Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
"Poetics of Stone"
Michelle Levy, Professor, Simon Fraser University
Alexander Grammatikos, PhD Student, Carleton University
Kandice Sharren, PhD Student, Simon Fraser University
"Remediating the Lyrical Ballads"
2015 Winners
Jessie Reeder, Assistant Professor, SUNY Binghamton
"Revolutionary Writing"
2015 Additional Finalists
Daniel Block, Visiting Assistant Professor, Five Colleges
"Romantic Remediations: A Creative Writing Assignment"
Mai-Lin Cheng, Assistant Professor, Clark Honors College, University of Oregon
"Romantic Stories."
2014 Winners
Lindsey Eckert, Assistant Professor of English, Georgia State University
"Romanticism and Technologies of Information"
(Spring 2014)
Lissette Lopez Szwydky, Assistant Professor of English, University of Arkansas
“Mary Shelley in Context(s): Wikis and Blogs in Romanticism Courses”
(Fall 2013/Spring 2015)
Additional 2014 Finalists
Michael Demson, Assistant Professor of English, Sam Houston State University
“Radical Publishers of the Romantic Era”
(Summer 2014)
Emily Rohrbach, Assistant Professor of English, Northwestern University
“Theories of the Sublime: Longinus, Burke, Kant, and Ngai”
(Taught Spring 2012/Spring 2015)
2013 Winners
David Ruderman, Assistant Professor, Ohio State University, Newark
“Repetitions of the Romantic: An Investigation into Romantic and Post-Romantic Art”
(To be taught fall 2013)
Sara Guyer, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin Madison
“Public Romanticism and the Public Humanities: A Graduate Seminar”
(Taught spring 2013)
Additional 2013 Finalists
Rachel Feder, Rutgers University
“Teaching early Romantic literature with a concluding unit on contemporary experimental poetry and neo-Gothic literature”
(Taught spring 2013)
Samantha Harvey, Associate Professor, Boise State University
“The Idea of Nature in Transatlantic Romanticism”
(To be taught Fall 2014 and Spring 2015)
About the Contest
The contest was devised in the hopes of celebrating recent pedagogical innovation, inspiring creative new approaches and creating an additional forum for conversations about Romantic pedagogy—both its boons and challenges. Teachers of all ranks may submit teaching materials, and a panel of three to four finalists are selected to discuss their pedagogy during a panel at the annual NASSR conference. Exemplary submissions consider how teaching revivifies Romanticism, in any of its myriad forms.
Submissions might include a course that rethinks the period; a part of a course that addresses a specific author, theory, or literary problem; a special project, assignment, or a particular pedagogical technique. We encourage the use of multimedia resources, digital techniques, and courses designed to use multi-modal digital platforms for learning and communication, but they are by no means required. Courses and projects should be recent—within the past two academic years—or projected to be taught in the following one.
After submitting a small packet of material, finalists are chosen via author-blind peer review by a committee composed of members of NASSR in the US, UK, and beyond, Romantic Circles, and the NASSR Graduate Caucus. Finalists will give a short presentation on their courses and pedagogies at a special panel during the NASSR conference, and their syllabi will be published on the Romantic Circles Pedagogies website. The winner, chosen after the panel, will receive a $250 award and recognition at the NASSR banquet.
See below for the list of previous winners and finalists as well as their syllabi and course materials. Some contestants have also volunteered an introductory or concluding statement discussing the aims of the course or its end results, depending on whether they have taught the course or are anticipating its teaching.
The contest is sponsored by the NASSR Advisory Board, the NASSR Organizing Committee, and the Romantic Circles website.
Submissions
Please send a document of between 3-5 pages to nassrpedagogycontest [at] gmail [dot] com. Submission dates can be found on the NASSR conference website of the local organizers. Please include a cover letter with identifying information, which should be left off all other documents. Initial queries and questions are welcomed at the email address above.
Potential materials might include but are not limited to:
- A cover letter and explanation of the submission, including an argument as to the course or project’s pedagogical innovation and benefits
- Syllabus or parts of a syllabus
- Assignment sheets
- Multimedia or digital materials